


lay us down (we're in love)

by the-bi-sokka-club (blametheone)



Series: Zukka Song Fics [3]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bisexual Sokka (Avatar), Emotional Baggage, Graphic Description of Injuries, Multi, Post-The Last Agni Kai (Avatar), Songfic, listen its just like very intense, okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:54:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27857177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blametheone/pseuds/the-bi-sokka-club
Summary: Katara, standing in the middle of the courtyard, tear tracks cutting lines through the blood and dirt on her face, hands open and shoulders defeated.Suki grabbed him, arms looping under his, and held Sokka tight, not letting go even when a blood curdling scream ripped out of his chest. No one was moving, but everyone had counted the heads now. Everyone knew someone was missing.
Relationships: Sokka/Suki (Avatar), Sokka/Suki/Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), Suki/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Zukka Song Fics [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1963387
Comments: 10
Kudos: 202





	lay us down (we're in love)

**Author's Note:**

> requested (a looooooooooong time ago sorry boo) by anon on tumblr. based on 'the end of all things' by panic! at the disco
> 
> zuko is more injured in this than he is in canon but YOU KNOW WHAT they don't ever show how much time there was between the angi kai and the coronation i can do what i want and call it canon compliant HA try and stop me
> 
> don't @ me about the sudden switch from suki's POV to sokka's or the linebreaks i am aware that i write fiction like a fkn screenplay

**[spotify playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/70MBqu4WplTmjKrwOgLH9R) **

Suki knew it the minute she saw him.

He was playing it off, kissing her, and it didn’t feel fake. It felt real, so real, and she felt his love – warm, genuine, innocent – fully wrap around her when he kissed her and promised to take care of her.

Sokka was a lot of things; he was pure and good and full of a kind of love that spilled out of him. He wasn’t able to keep anything a secret. In the dark of the night at the Serpent’s Pass he had whispered to her about Yue, and Suki had whispered back. She told him parts of herself she didn’t think she could tell anyone. He had confided his guilt and his shame, not just for not being able to protect her, but also for being with anyone else instead of waiting to find Suki again.

She had flicked the back of his hand and whispered, “That’s dumb.”

Suki wasn’t an idiot, and if she was then she certainly wasn’t a sheltered one. She had grown up on an island and her travels up the peninsula and around the world showed her that the polyamorous ways of the Kyoshi Warriors weren’t exactly the ‘norm’ in the Earth Kingdom, but they were her norm. She didn’t care that a warrior she once kissed got a girlfriend a month later.

And now, in the prison, she couldn’t find it in her heart to care that much either.

Sokka, never very good at hiding his thoughts and feelings, was – in fairness – putting up a valiant front. But Suki knew.

Because when Sokka took off the mask and she got to see his face, he was fully in love with her and she could tell. But he was nervous, glancing at the door, and guilty. Hiding it, but guilty.

She knew that when Sokka looked at Zuko it was a look of utmost trust, respect, and affection. It was a familiar look in his eyes, one she had seen before.

But she kept her mouth shut, for Sokka’s sake, and waited until they weren’t in a high security prison with Sokka’s dad to bring it up.

~*~

Suki _wanted_ to bring up the whole Zuko thing, and she knew she _needed_ to bring up the Zuko thing, but honestly she was a little curious to see how long it took Sokka before he burst.

And Zuko, who appeared to at least be a little bit better at keeping secrets but not at all good at containing his feelings, kept very unsubtly leaving the room every time Suki sat down, so between the two of them she was practically placing bets with herself on who would crack first.

~*~

It was Sokka. Sokka cracked first.

~*~

“Hi,” Suki announced her presence, settling into the sand next to Zuko.

The prince glanced at Suki, eyes widened slightly and ears pulled back. He was trying to contain his nervousness but, frankly, was doing a terrible, terrible job.

The sounds of the ocean crashing in on itself provided a serene background noise, and all around them the birds and crickets native to the island made soft chirping noises as they began to settle down for the approaching dusk. Suki looked over at Zuko, watching his response carefully.

“Sokka spoke to me,” she said. “I knew, anyway, but I should let you know he spoke to me.”

That threw him, a bit, but Suki didn’t let him ponder it.

“I just…” she shrugged a little, glancing at their hands, barely an inch apart, “I told Sokka that the decision is up to him. He can do what he wants. But…”

She linked their pinkies.

“I’m up for whatever.”

The slowly setting sun was casting an orange glow over the both of them, distorting all of their colours. Zuko’s eyes looked almost pink in the reddish light, and Suki’s hair was almost shimmering gold. Almost, almost.

“I burnt down your village,” Zuko looks over at her, apologetic and bewildered.

“Yeah, but then you risked your life to break me out of prison,” she smirked, shrugging. “After all of this is over, I’ll burn your home down and then find a way to make it up to so we’re even. But until then…”

She linked their fingers.

“Until then, we’re good.”

~*~

Suki watched them. Idiots, both of them.

Zuko was readying to leave, while Katara loitered in the background checking Appa’s saddle for any last minute adjustments, and Sokka was just standing in front of him. Neither of them were saying anything, or doing anything, despite how obvious the pain was.

And it’s not like it would have mattered, if they had done something ridiculous like run into each others arms or held on and not let go. No one would have batted an eyelid at some overdramatic show of affection, regardless of what they did or did not know about the nature of Sokka and Zuko’s relationship.

Because everyone was in pain. Everyone wanted to hold on and not let go. Everyone was looking at each other’s faces not knowing if it was the last time they’d see them. Or see them intact.

Suki was, unfortunately, well acquainted with the feeling. Many a time she had left for a mission, taken a quick look at her girls, and not known how many of them she would be bringing back. And no matter how many times the thought ran through her head – no matter how many morbid, intrusive visions flashed across her eyes – it never, ever got easier.

But she did learn to live with it. She got better and better each time at staying positive and compartmentalising. Usually, she would convince herself by reminding herself that she had never lost a warrior, no matter how bad things got.

But that was with her warriors, not this completely different team of people, and that was before her warriors got captured and imprisoned.

Eventually, Zuko broke, and pulled Sokka against him in an embrace that was so tight it almost looked painful. Sokka had Zuko’s tunic clenched in his fist and Suki saw his lips move but couldn’t hear what he said.

She loitered. Because Sokka eventually pulled away, gave Zuko a curt nod, and jogged off to get his own things ready and to check in with Toph. And Suki loitered, because Zuko had wet eyes and his hands were shaking and for the first time in a long time Suki had a real, genuine fear of losing someone in battle.

She didn’t know who. She trusted them all. She knew they were powerful and skilled. But the power they were facing was a great, great power. Of all the propaganda from the Fire Nation about their superiority, they hadn’t been lying about Ozai’s power, and he was about to be given a significant boost.

And Suki had seen Azula first hand, and wasn’t sure how to feel about letting Zuko and Katara go off alone to face her.

The image of Zuko tumbling off the side of the war balloon, only a few short days ago, kept running in her mind over and over. Azula, using quick wit to save herself from a certain death. Zuko, saved only because there were people nearby to catch him.

What if there was no one to catch him this time?

She wasn’t sure when she started moving, but once she collided against him she couldn’t let go. They were both trembling – just a little, but enough to notice.

“Don’t be a hero,” she murmured. Zuko, not exactly great with words, didn’t say anything, but he didn’t have to either.

“I mean it,” she pulled back, hand gently resting on his cheek. “Don’t be a dumbass, either.”

He snorted, smile pulling at his lips. Zuko took in a shaky breath and held Suki’s face, hands warm and calloused.

“Please be safe,” he said. “Please?”

A distant voice in the back of her head knew that when they got out of this alive she would have to tell the warriors about the Prince of the Fire Nation saying ‘pretty please’.

Suki nodded, took two deep breaths, and forced herself to pull away. She took two steps backwards before Zuko opened his mouth.

“And keep them safe,” he pleaded, eyes genuine and distressed. Suki couldn’t help but smile, if a little crooked.

“Someone has to,” she nodded.

Zuko nodded back and slowly turned, moving towards Katara’s direction. Suki forced herself to finally step away, rushing off to find Toph and Sokka, who were hopefully ready enough to get going.

~*~

When they arrived at the palace, it was like everything stopped.

The airship landed, and Aang, occupied with Ozai, didn’t see Katara.

Katara, standing in the middle of the courtyard, tear tracks cutting lines through the blood and dirt on her face, hands open and shoulders defeated.

Toph, also occupied with Ozai, stood up like her skin had been struck with lighting, her head turning towards Katara but her face read it all. She didn’t need to ask the question and she didn’t need the answer.

Sokka was watching it all happen in slow motion, stumbling out of Suki’s arms and smacking the cobblestone with his elbows – crawling forward like he didn’t even notice.

Suki grabbed him, arms looping under his, and held Sokka tight, not letting go even when a blood curdling scream ripped out of his chest. No one was moving, but everyone had counted the heads now. Everyone knew someone was missing.

Katara’s eyes were dry – her lips quivering but her heart numbed – and she held up her arms to take Sokka’s hands.

Suki’s pretty sure she said something, something like “he’s not gone”, but her voice sounded like it was underwater. Everything felt disconnected, and all of those morbid, intrusive visions were coming back in full force. None of the sounds in the world were working the way they were meant to, everything kept reverberating off the stones and missing her ears.

“He’s not gone,” Katara assured, some parts of her voice finally filtering in. “He’s just-”

Suki spared a glance to Sokka, who was barely holding his own weight up. He looked so young, all of a sudden, tear tracks through the soot on his cheeks and a small bruise forming on his forehead, just under the hairline.

Sokka couldn’t hear anything. He understood what Katara was saying but he couldn’t hear her. He could barely see her – everything was so blurred and dark. He couldn’t feel his feet on the ground, he couldn’t even feel his leg. He knew distantly that his forearms were bleeding, but he couldn’t feel the pain.

All he could hear, see, feel was this overwhelming sense – a knowing – that if he just got to Zuko quick enough, he would be okay.

If he just moved quicker, Zuko would be safe, he would live.

He couldn’t just stay here. Suki holding him around his waist felt so similar to the snow that hindered his feet that it was making his stomach roll.

He just needed to _be_ there and it wouldn’t happen.

Because he couldn’t do it again. He couldn’t do this whole thing again, not for the third fucking time. He couldn’t let Zuko die while he was stood here doing _nothing_. He had to do something, _anything_.

Something around his body was moving, and he realised with a belated start that Toph was coming up to his other side and helping Suki to hold him up. And there was another figure, tall and in some sort of dark red attire, that had appeared next to Katara.

He couldn’t hear anything, but Katara was running.

And not a single thing in the world could have stopped Sokka from chasing after her.

The broken leg. The snow. It was like trying to run in a dream.

The halls of the palace were giant, ornate, and ridiculously long and convoluted. With each corner he thought they might finally be there, but there was always another twist or another bend. It was eerily similar to the bunker – the day that felt like a whole lifetime ago.

Toph was trying to say something reassuring, that she could still feel Zuko’s heartbeat, or that they were nearly there, but Sokka wasn’t listening.

He had felt such a full-body wave of relief when Suki and Toph both came out okay, it had felt like being hit by a boulder. And his euphoria, knowing they were safe and that Ozai had been defeated, had carried him through the pain in his leg the whole trip from the Earth Kingdom to here.

And of course, it had to be Zuko.

Sokka didn’t even know how it happened but he knew it was something stupid. He knew Zuko would have made an impulsive shot or tried to be some kind of hero. He was almost certain that Zuko had gotten cocky and arrogant and had made an inaccurate assumption about his own strength versus Azula’s.

When they reached the room, Sokka ripped himself out of Toph and Suki’s arms without even realising, hopping across the short stretch and immediately crawling onto the bed with the full intention of smacking Zuko right across the cheek for being a reckless idiot.

But he saw him, laying there pale and motionless, and time stopped.

Zuko’s chest was exposed, and smack-bang in the middle of his torso was the damage. A wound unlike anything Sokka had ever seen before, the skin bubbling like it had boiled and split open – hit with a force greater than man could accomplish.

Sokka sat, his bad leg outstretched and his other tucked underneath him, one hand on Zuko’s knee, and the world around him slowly filtered in.

“Zuko…” Suki’s voice was soft and broken up somewhere behind him. Katara was somewhere to Sokka’s left, a bubble of glowing water between her hand and Zuko’s chest, and there was a man he didn’t recognise to his right, who was assessing Zuko’s temperature and barking orders at the other people in the room.

Sokka heard Toph object – loudly – when someone tried to usher them out of the room, and felt Suki’s calloused hand wrap around his bicep in defiance of the medic’s orders.

It was when Katara looked up, eyes weary and strength broken, that Toph shut up. Sokka could distantly feel Suki’s arms wrap around him from behind, her soft voice in his ear, and he was lifted from the bed like a ragdoll.

He had a strange feeling, like he was being dragged from a burning house.

~*~

Aang had been left out of the commotion, dealing with Ozai, but he wasn’t an idiot. He knew what was happening.

When Suki dragged Sokka down the halls, Toph half-heartedly helping but really only holding up Sokka’s right arm more so than actually supporting his weight, the look on Aang’s face was heart-wrenching. Ozai had been jailed, and Aang was left standing in the hallway looking like a ghost.

He came over, almost immediately, to help Sokka hobble down to some common room that Toph led them into, but by the time they had lowered Sokka to the ground, Aang had tears welling up in his eyes and snot threatening to leak out of his nose.

“It’s okay,” Suki assured, and Sokka could hear the familiar tone in her voice, the one that meant she was lying. “He’s still hanging on, and Katara’s doing everything she can, so he’s in good hands.”

Something washed over Aang’s face Sokka couldn’t be bothered to recognise, and he mumbled Katara’s name to himself distantly.

Everyone’s attention was suddenly shifted when a noise came out of Sokka’s chest that shocked even him.

Suki was the first on the ground, wrapping her arms around him and pressing her lips to the hair on the side of his head, but Toph and Aang weren’t far off. They all huddled together, and it wasn’t even about comforting Sokka – who had now distantly realised he had tears on his face and the sobbing sound that was coming from him.

It was about the fact that it was over and they were here and Ozai was defeated and the Earth Kingdom was safe and they were tired and they were hungry and they were in so, so, so much pain.

Sokka ran his palm over Aang’s head and pushed their foreheads together.

“Good job, ding-dong,” he laughed through a wet sob. “I’ll never call your whole peace thing annoying again.”

Toph squeezed her way in – not so good with the words but keen to show that she, also, was grateful for Aang’s success.

“We were so worried about you,” Suki murmured, rubbing Aang’s back and leaning her head against Sokka’s shoulder.

And Aang was crying now, too, catharsis fully taking over, and it was okay.

~*~

“Katara-”

Aang’s voice startled Sokka awake. By the time the other three managed to turn their heads towards Katara – standing in the doorway looking near a collapse – Aang was across the room with his arms outstretched, prepared for anything from a punch to a hug to catching her if she passed out.

“He’s okay,” Katara spoke softly, and it was hard to ignore that her gaze fell directly on Sokka.

It’s not like he was particularly subtle, and Katara – for all her impulsive, 14-year-old antics – was an intelligent young woman and they didn’t need to talk about it for Sokka to know that she knew.

Sokka didn’t hesitate, didn’t wait for anyone’s help, he just pulled himself up and into a half-hobble/half-crawl and Suki had to shock herself out of her half-asleep state to catch him before he re-broke his leg.

~*~

Sokka more or less repeated the same actions as before, crawling on top of the bed the second he saw it as a feasible action.

Zuko didn’t look any different – pale and still – except that now there was a giant bandage covering the horror that marred his chest.

Sokka reached for Zuko’s left hand, and didn’t notice the bruising until he heard Suki’s gasp behind him.

Zuko’s entire arm, both arms, were bruised along each vein line like a horrific drawing from an anatomy textbook, the lines running all the way from his fingertips to his shoulders and across his chest under the bandage. The bruises were freshly formed, and Sokka predicted that they were only going to get darker.

“Let’s hope his coronation robes are long-sleeved, huh?” the words spilled out of Sokka’s mouth on instinct.

Suki let out a shocked laugh, eyes still wet as she crawled into the bed on Zuko’s other side.

Sokka closed his eyes, rubbing his thumb over the back of Zuko’s hand – careful to be gentle in case the bruises hurt – and forced the bad thoughts out of his head.

“I told you to be careful,” he said gently. “If this is your definition of careful we need to have a serious talk.”

Suki was smiling, her eyes closing gently as she let her head rest against Zuko’s shoulder.

Maybe she didn’t have the same feelings for Zuko that Sokka did, but it didn’t mean she didn’t have any at all. It didn’t mean she wasn’t losing someone incredibly important to her – important to everyone.

Zuko, in the span of barely a month, had become someone so important and integral to all of them. She just wished he was awake enough to realise it.

Sokka’s eyes shot open as he felt the softest pressure push against his palm.

Zuko wasn’t moving, but the feeling had been unmistakable.

“Don’t you squeeze my hand now, you big dumbass,” Sokka breathed, only half-joking. “I’m so mad at you right now, Zuko, you have to pull through this so I can fucking kill you.”

But he had brought the prince’s hand to his lips and had his eyes squeezed shut so tight Suki’s almost certain it was to keep any more tears from spilling out so it’s not like his words carried that much weight.

“Wake up,” Sokka pleaded gently against Zuko’s knuckles.

~*~

Suki was asleep. She had curled up against Zuko’s right side, barely touching him, just holding his hand.

There were soft sounds coming from the both of them, deep and heavy breaths.

His back was aching but Sokka couldn’t lay down. He didn’t want to sleep.

~*~

Sokka was shocked awake by the door opening behind him, and when he turns his head, Katara is there was a small bowl of water.

Suki was still fast asleep on Zuko’s right side, so Sokka made the sacrifice and let go of his hand, shuffling down to give Katara space.

The siblings were wordless. Sokka was willing to bet he looked just as bad, if not worse, than she did and she did not look great. Katara’s eyes were half-lidded, surrounded by dark circles that almost looked like bruises. None of her wounds had been healed, they hadn’t even been washed out, which – for a waterbender – was as surprising as it was worrying.

She looked like someone had sucked all the energy and life out of her. Sokka couldn’t stand it.

Katara’s weight dipped the bed gently (and Sokka took a moment to appreciate that his boyfriend truly was a spoiled rich kid – all four of them comfortably fit on his childhood bed) and she barely spared her brother a glance as she began to undo the bandages over Zuko’s chest.

“He squeezed my hand before,” Sokka mentioned.

Katara nodded dully, not looking away from her work.

“He was awake on and off before you guys arrived,” she said, voice quiet. “Even right after it happened he was standing, walking, talking. He must have been pushing it too hard, he just… collapsed.”

Sokka observed Zuko’s features for a brief second.

“What happened?”

Katara finally looked up at him, hands halting. She shook her head.

“I’m not even sure,” she said, hands reanimating. “He can tell us.”

The wound on his chest wasn’t any easier to look at now than it was before. Katara seemed numb to it, bending the water over Zuko’s arms to assess for damage, before focusing her energy on the wound in the centre.

“Why isn’t it healing?” Sokka asked gently.

“Remember when Aang got hit by lightning?”

Sokka looked at her.

“It’s like that. But internally much worse. And I don’t have spirit water.”

“He-”

“He didn’t die,” she clarified. “But he burnt his insides. Aang didn’t.”

Sokka tried not to let everything about this conversation kill him inside. His trusty defence mechanisms kicked in, instead.

“Like his entire identity wasn’t already ‘the burned guy’.”

Katara snorted, but there was no body to it.

Eventually, she sighed and pulled away, hands reaching for Sokka’s leg. He swatted her hands away, gripping her wrists gently.

“Nuh uh,” Sokka looked her in the eye. “I’m fine, you either heal him or you rest.”

Katara shot him an exasperated look and pulled her wrists away.

“Zuko is fine, he just needs rest,” she insisted. “I’m only coming in to check on him because he’s not awake to tell me if something’s hurting or if anything has changed.”

“He probably wouldn’t tell you even if he was awake,” Sokka reminded her, and Katara hopped off the bed.

“I’ll be back tomorrow,” she informed, and slipped out the door.

Sokka turned his attention back to Zuko, and gasped when he saw gold eyes staring back at him.

“Zuko-” he breathed, and the prince squeezed his hand.

“Hi…” Zuko whispered gently, eyelids fluttering. He tugged lightly on Sokka’s hand, barely moving it but making his point known.

Sokka let go of him for a brief second to turn himself around – which was an interesting process with two broken bones in your leg – and positioned himself against Zuko’s side, settling down into the pillows.

Sokka pushed his face into Zuko’s neck. “I can leave if you want, I just-”

“Don’t.”

Zuko’s eyes were fluttering open and shut, now, and Sokka felt his heart hurting.

“Are you okay?”

Zuko shook his head, barely, and mumbled, “shh,” before his eyes closed and his breathing softened again. Sokka put a hand to his chest – just above the wound – and let the soft, but consistent, beating of Zuko’s heart gently lull him to sleep.

~*~

When Zuko woke for the second time in the day, he was more present than he had been before. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed between the Agni Kai and now, and all of his memories of the time in between were fuzzy and blurred together.

Sokka was sleeping against his left bicep, and as Zuko continued to wake he noticed the soft weight against his right side, and he couldn’t see her face but Suki’s auburn hair was enough of a giveaway.

Sokka’s hand is still resting on his chest. His fingers were twitching.

Zuko couldn’t help but smile. He couldn’t bring himself to wake either of them, but when he turned his head, Sokka’s eyes were flickering open anyway.

Sokka reluctantly awoke, and pushed himself up onto his elbows when he realised Zuko was awake.

“How are you feeling?” he murmured, voice soft and grumbly. Zuko shook his head, not wanting to put any attention onto how his body felt.

“Why haven’t you moved?”

“My leg is broken.”

“Your le- Sokka!” the soft, sweet look Zuko had on his face was gone now. “Why aren’t you healing? Why isn’t it splinted? You need to be resting-”

“I _am_ resting,” Sokka put his hand over Zuko’s mouth. “ _You_ need to be resting, not getting worked up about me.”

Suki’s eyes were blinking open, now, and she had a tiny smirk on her lips that confirmed to Sokka that she had been awake for a little while but hadn’t quite opened her eyes until now.

“You’re getting that splinted,” Zuko insisted, eyelids drooping, energy drained.

“Lay down.”

“Get your leg splinted,” Zuko lazily lifted a finger at him as he laid back against the pillows.

“If I get it splinted will you sleep?”

“Mm,” Zuko murmured, slipping back into unconsciousness against his will, and when Zuko winced – pain blossoming in his chest – Sokka winced too.

He looked up at Suki, and maybe she had been looking at Zuko with a soft expression marred by bittersweet worry, but the second she met Sokka’s eyes her expression fell and smirked.

“Get your leg splinted.”

~*~

True to her word, Katara came by in the morning, dark circles under her eyes now somehow darker than yesterday. Sokka eased himself off the bed, hobbling to the middle of the room and putting a hand up to stop her.

“Sit with me,” Sokka insisted, awkwardly lowered himself to the ground. Katara’s expression was not amused, but they both knew he was fully prepared to pull her down to the ground if she didn’t sit here herself.

She sighed, putting the bowl of water on a vanity against the wall, and sit in the middle of the room with her brother.

“Did you sleep?” Sokka asked her, and when Katara didn’t respond he pulled her into his lap.

“Katara, you need to slow down,” he insisted, and ignored her weak struggles against his grip.

“Sokka, so many soldiers are hurt, I-”

“The Fire Nation has medicine, Katara,” he cut her off. “If you don’t sleep I’m going to knock you out myself.”

Katara cried against her brother’s shoulder, all of the feelings she had been pushing away for hours finally taking over her.

~*~

Katara had, eventually, calmed and had helped Sokka off the floor enough for him to force her to go lay down somewhere and get some actual sleep. And, in true Katara-style fashion, she refused to sleep until she had at least splinted his leg.

Which he agreed to, mostly because get around was becoming very, very painful and his stress had more or less worn off so all of his nerve endings were up and running again.

He was pleased to discover that Katara had sought out a pair of crutches, which made the whole walking thing much easier.

His first mission was to find food, but an important aspect of that mission was to make sure Suki accompanied him to find food, because Sokka was about 97% sure that Suki hadn’t eaten anything in three days.

Suki was sitting up when he got back to the room, and when she saw the splint and crutches a smile broke out on her face.

“Aw,” she tilted her head, voice barely above a whisper in respect of Zuko’s sleep, “You mean I don’t get to carry your heavy butt around anymore?”

“Ha, ha,” Sokka rolled his eyes, holding the door open with his back. “Come on.”

~*~

And at least once, in the big empty halls – most of the palace staff either fired, banished or hiding out at home – they held each other close.

And Sokka whispered, “I’m so happy you’re safe. You had me so worried.”

And Suki murmured, “You too,” voice barely audible and cracking at the end.

~*~

Aang and Toph both got to see Zuko. They were informed by the others that Zuko was fine, on his way to recovery, and had woken up with enough strength to yell at Sokka – which Toph found amusing and Aang found relieving – and had immediately run off to go and visit the sleeping firebender.

Katara eventually awoke and stumbled into the common room they had more or less claimed for themselves, and was greeted with a rally of cheers and arms up and hugs that she reluctantly accepted.

Zuko slept for the next two days. He would flutter his eyes sometimes, he would even talk a little, but he would inevitably drift back off to sleep.

When he did eventually wake up, for good, Sokka was asleep against his side and Suki was sitting cross-legged at the end of the bed with a bowl of breakfast in her lap.

At first Suki didn’t notice Zuko’s eyes opening, but he made this tiny noise whenever he woke up, like a small gasp, and it caught her attention. Zuko gingerly shifted into a sitting position, inadvertently waking Sokka as he did so.

Sokka, awake now but upset about it, kept his eyes closed and cuddled against Zuko’s waist.

“Katara gave you the all-clear to stand up, if you want to,” Suki murmured, mouth full and not even willing to apologise for it.

“I say you have to stay in bed still,” Sokka mumbled into the pillow. Zuko smiled despite himself.

“And how long do I have to stay in bed, Doctor Sokka?”

“Until I can poke your stomach and you don’t even wince,” Sokka grinned, though they couldn’t see it. “And then we’ll still wait a few weeks after that just to make sure.”

Zuko rolled his eyes and Suki watched as some of his reality began to filter in.

Sokka was in his bed, cuddling against him, and had been for three days. And Suki, who had been publicly named as Sokka’s girlfriend, was also in here cuddling with him.

“So… uh…” Zuko ran a hand through Sokka’s hair. “How obvious have we been for the past three days?”


End file.
